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May 11, 2026
This week’s themeWhose what? This week’s words 
Three Cats Singing, 1925/1939
Art: Louis Wain Previous week’s theme Words to describe people Wordsmith Games
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu GargPossession is nine-tenths of the law, but in English it’s also a fertile source of idioms. Crow’s feet, for example, do not constitute evidence of birds tiptoeing across your face even though they are wrinkles around your eyes. This week we feature five terms that answer the question: Whose what? Each is a possessive phrase in the format X’s Y. We’ll meet a cat, a patriarch, a rake, a pig, and a parson. As you’ll see below, the cat’s ___ is already filled in. Stay tuned to discover the same for the rest of this week’s cast. cat’s meow
PRONUNCIATION:
(CATS mee-OW)
MEANING:
noun: Something or someone excellent.
ETYMOLOGY:
From cat, from Old English catt + meow (the cry of a cat), of imitative
origin. Earliest documented use: 1921.
NOTES:
The term is strongly associated with the slangy exuberance of the
1920s and the Jazz Age. In that era, American English had a fad for playful
animal phrases meaning something excellent: cat’s pajamas,
cat’s whiskers, bee’s knees, and so on. Today’s term belongs to that same
litter.
USAGE:
“‘My mom truly believed that my brother was the king and the cat’s meow,’
Lam said in an interview. ‘She truly embodied that sons and boys were
put on a pedestal.’” Nathan Griffiths; ‘Biased’ Will That Left $2.9m to Son Overruled in BC; Daughter Inherited $170,000; Calgary Herald (Canada); Sep 18, 2024. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The difference between false memories and true ones is the same as for
jewels: it is always the false ones that look the most real, the most
brilliant. -Salvador Dali, painter (11 May 1904-1989)
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